One Less Empty Bowl

When their school replaced the students' holiday gift exchange with service projects for community members in need, 2nd-grade students decided to help the hungry.  The project opened the students' eyes and the community's hearts.

The students volunteered at a local soup kitchen for a day.  They were amazed at how many people in their town were in need of help.  The soup kitchen said that in addition to volunteers, they needed money to purchase food for the meals they served. 

The students organized a luncheon to raise funds.  They planned the menu and calculated how much of each ingredient they needed, brainstormed a list of prominent community members and business owners, and created and mailed invitations to those people.  The 2nd graders also worked with their art teacher to create placemats and paper-mâché bowls for the people who attended the luncheon to take away with them as a reminder of how they had helped feed the hungry. 

On the day of the event, the students greeted guests, served lunch, and cleaned up.  They wrote thank you notes to everyone who had donated, and presented a check to the soup kitchen.  In addition to donating to the students' cause, many of the luncheon attendees were moved to return to the school later in the year to speak at Career Day.

Adapted from "Route to Reform: K-8 service-learning Curriculum Ideas," © 1994-95 National Youth Leadership Council.